In her last review for the Guardian, before she takes over as critic at the Sunday Times, Marina O’Loughlin has an almost pitch-perfect meal at the Quality Chop House on Farringdon Road in London.

For this, my last review for the Guardian, I’m taking the opportunity offered by an adjustment in ownership and kitchen rethink to retrace my steps of a few years ago to The Quality Chop House. Fortunately, the extraordinary, wood-pewed, tiled-floor interior from its days as a “Progressive Working Class Caterer” is listed and can’t change. If it were down to me, they should also slap a listing on Shaun Searley: that rarest of creatures, a supremely talented chef who appears to be ego-free. Any grandstanding he might feel like doing ends up on the plate, to the ultimate joy and benefit of the diner, not the glorification of the kitchen.